For most of us, an enormous amount of our life now lives in our phones — photographs, messages, notes, voice memos, the apps that hold our finances and our memberships and our writing. When someone dies, that data does not automatically pass to family. Without preparation, it can be effectively locked away forever.

Apple’s December 2021 update (iOS 15.2) introduced a feature called Digital Legacy that helps solve this for iPhone users. It is a small, specific tool, but it answers an increasingly common question in estate planning: what happens to my Apple ID when I die?

What the Digital Legacy feature does.

Digital Legacy lets you designate up to five “legacy contacts” — people who, after your death, can request access to the data stored in your Apple ID and iCloud account. This includes photos, messages, notes, mail, contacts, calendars, files in iCloud Drive, and certain other categories of data. (Some categories — like licensed music, movies, books, in-app purchases, and saved passwords — are not transferable.)

To request the data, the legacy contact has to provide two things to Apple: an access key generated when you set them up, and a copy of your death certificate. Apple verifies both, then unlocks the account for them within a defined window.

How to set it up.

On an iPhone running iOS 15.2 or later: Settings → [your name] → Sign-In & Security → Legacy Contact → Add Legacy Contact. Choose someone (an iCloud user it can be sent to electronically; otherwise a printed access key). Apple will guide you through generating the key.

The key part: your legacy contact needs the access key. Sending it via Messages or email is fine, but they have to keep it. We recommend printing it out and storing it with your other estate planning documents — or at the very least telling them where to find it. A legacy contact without the key is just a person on a list.

Why this matters.

Years of irreplaceable family photos. A decade of text messages with a parent who has died. The notes app where someone tracked passwords or final wishes. Recordings of a child’s voice. Without something like Digital Legacy — or its analog from the other major platforms — this material can be effectively unreachable, even by an executor armed with a court order. Tech companies set their own rules for posthumous access, and historically those rules have been restrictive and slow.

For families dealing with sudden loss, the inability to access the deceased’s phone is one of those small, sharp griefs that compounds the larger one.

How this fits the rest of your plan.

Digital Legacy is one tool, for one ecosystem. A complete estate plan covers the rest:

  • Google. Set an Inactive Account Manager. Google will let designated contacts download your data after your account has been inactive for a period you specify.
  • Facebook / Instagram (Meta). You can name a legacy contact for your Facebook account or designate it to be deleted on death. Instagram allows memorialization.
  • Password managers. Most major password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, etc.) have emergency access features. A trusted person can request access after a waiting period you control.
  • Cryptocurrency. If you hold crypto, the keys are the asset. If they die with you, so does the asset. There are mature solutions for inheriting crypto — ask us if this applies to you.
  • Your will and trust. Your will and revocable trust should grant your fiduciaries explicit authority over digital assets, both under federal and state law (RUFADAA in most states) and your service-provider agreements.

Quick FAQ.

Do I have to give my legacy contact my Apple ID password? No. They use the access key plus your death certificate. They never need your password.

Can my executor use this instead? The legacy contact and your executor can be the same person — that’s often the cleanest setup. The legacy contact is an Apple-side designation; your executor is an estate-law-side designation. Aligning them avoids surprises.

What about Find My, Apple Pay, my purchase history? Some categories transfer (photos, mail, contacts, calendars, files). Others don’t (licensed media, in-app purchases, saved passwords, some financial data). Plan accordingly.

Should I list my devices and accounts in my will? Yes — or in a private memorandum referenced by your will. A private property memorandum is a useful tool for the inventory, since it can be updated as you change devices without rewriting the will. Talk to us about how to integrate digital assets into your existing plan.